CS130 CourseWork1 ‐ What effects are personal drones having on individual privacy?

My Submission for the CS130 Course Work 1

SCRIPT: (in case you can't hear due to the clipchamp create tag)

In this video, I wish to explore the various effects that personal drones have on individual privacy. Personal drones in the past were mainly used for aerial photography for journalism or film but in more recent times, there are many more possible uses such as in-home security or with the creation of virtual tours. The number of drones now being owned by consumers is also rising, for example, as shown by the following graphs, in the US, the consumer drone market has been steadily growing from 2015-2017. BI Intelligence also expects consumer drone shipments to hit 29 million in 2021. With an increasing usefulness and an expanding market, a concern is raised with how personal drones can infringe on the privacy of other individuals. There are two highlighted issues of personal drones: discreet data collection which violates consent and hidden drone controllers. The invisibility of controllers makes the efforts of people trying to protect their privacy through traditional means, such as, asking controllers to delete photos, less successful. Depending on the type of drone and the proximity to individuals, drones are able to spot many personal details such as, genders, ethnicities, faces, accessories and even any personal items a person might be carrying which can be extreme invasions of personal privacy, especially if the non-users are unaware of the drones presence. People are always in fear of the potential violation of their personal privacy, in regard to visual recordings, as drones could be used for spying, or recording without proper consent. A laboratory study was carried out at the University of Maryland, US, to further understand how users feel about the impact of drones on their individual privacy. The study found that people have an “unwillingness to disclose personal information under drone surveillance” and that things as simple as the design and movement of a drone can influence a person’s feeling of privacy. Factors such as colour, size and sound all affected the participants perspectives on the drones and how comfortable they felt around them. To conclude, there are many effects of personal drones on individual privacy, such as, being recorded without consent, hidden drone controllers and the design and movement of drones being suspicious to non-users.

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